I recently returned to Foggy Bottom for the first time since January 20 to attend the departure of a former colleague and career midlevel official — something that had sadly become routine. In my six years at State as a political appointee, under the Obama administration, I had gone to countless of these events. They usually followed a similar pattern: slightly awkward, but endearing formalities, a sense of melancholy at the loss of a valued teammate. But, in the end, a rather jovial celebration of a colleague’s work. These events usually petered out quickly, since there is work to do. At the State Department, the unspoken mantra is: The mission goes on, and no one is irreplaceable. But this event did not follow that pattern. It felt more like a funeral, not for the departing colleague, but for the dying organization they were leaving behind.

As I made the rounds and spoke with usually buttoned-up career officials, some who I knew well, some who I didn’t, from a cross section of offices covering various regions and functions, no one held back. To a person, I heard that the State Department was in “chaos,” “a disaster,” “terrible,” the leadership “totally incompetent.” This reflected what I had been hearing the past few months from friends still inside the department, but hearing it in rapid fire made my stomach churn. As I walked through the halls once stalked by diplomatic giants like Dean Acheson and James Baker, the deconstruction was literally visible. Furniture from now-closed offices crowded the hallways. Dropping in on one of my old offices, I expected to see a former colleague — a career senior foreign service officer — but was stunned to find out she had been abruptly forced into retirement and had departed the previous week. This office, once bustling, had just one person present, keeping on the lights.

Tillerson is not reorganizing, he’s downsizing.

This is how diplomacy dies. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. With empty offices on a midweek afternoon.

When Rex Tillerson was announced as secretary of state, there was a general feeling of excitement and relief in the department. After eight years of high-profile, jet-setting secretaries, the building was genuinely looking forward to having someone experienced in corporate management. Like all large, sprawling organizations, the State Department’s structure is in perpetual need of an organizational rethink. That was what was hoped for, but that is not what is happening. Tillerson is not reorganizing, he’s downsizing.

This is how diplomacy dies. Not with a bang, but with a whimper | Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

While the lack of senior political appointees has gotten a lot of attention, less attention has been paid to the hollowing out of the career workforce, who actually run the department day to day. Tillerson has canceled the incoming class of foreign service officers. This as if the Navy told all of its incoming Naval Academy officers they weren’t needed. Senior officers have been unceremoniously pushed out. Many saw the writing on the wall and just retired, and many others are now awaiting buyout offers. He has dismissed State’s equivalent of an officer reserve — retired FSOs, who are often called upon to fill State’s many short-term staffing gaps, have been sent home despite no one to replace them. Office managers are now told three people must depart before they can make one hire. And now Bloomberg reports that Tillerson is blocking all lateral transfers within the department, preventing staffers from moving to another office even if it has an opening. Managers can’t fill openings; employees feel trapped.

Despite all this, career foreign and civil service officers are all still working incredibly hard representing the United States internationally. They’re still doing us proud. But how do you manage multimillion-dollar programs with no people? Who do you send to international meetings and summits? Maybe, my former colleagues are discovering, you just can’t implement that program or show up to that meeting. Tillerson’s actions amount to a geostrategic own-goal, weakening America by preventing America from showing up.

The problem with running the State Department like a business is that most businesses fail — and American diplomacy is too big to fail.

State’s growing policy irrelevance and Tillerson’s total aversion to the experts in his midst is prompting the department’s rising stars to search for the exits. The private sector and the Pentagon are vacuuming them up. This is inflicting long-term damage to the viability of the American diplomacy — and things were already tough. State has been operating under an austerity budget for the past six years since the 2011 Budget Control Act. Therefore, when Tillerson cuts, he is largely cutting into bone, not fat. The next administration won’t simply be able to flip a switch and reverse the damage. It takes years to recruit and develop diplomatic talent. What Vietnam did to hollow out our military, Tillerson is doing to State.

What we now know is that the building is being run by a tiny clique of ideologues who know nothing about the department but have insulated themselves from the people who do. Tillerson and his isolated and inexperienced cadres are going about reorganizing the department based on little more than gut feeling. They are going about it with vigor. And there is little Congress can seemingly do — though lawmakers control the purse strings, it’s hard to stop an agency from destroying itself.

At the root of the problem is the inherent distrust of the State Department and career officers. I can sympathize with this — I, too, was once a naive political appointee, like many of the Trump people. During the 2000s, when I was in my 20s, I couldn’t imagine anyone working for George W. Bush. I often interpreted every action from the Bush administration in the most nefarious way possible. Almost immediately after entering government, I realized how foolish I had been.

A view of the State Department seal on the podium | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

For most of Foggy Bottom, the politics of Washington might as well have been the politics of Timbuktu — a distant concern, with little relevance to most people’s work. I found that State’s career officials generally were more hawkish than most Democrats, but believe very much in American leadership in international organizations and in forging international agreements, putting them to the left of many Republicans. Politically, most supported politicians that they thought would best protect and strengthen American interests and global leadership. Many career officials were often exasperated by the Obama administration and agreed with much of the conservative critique of his policies—hence the initial enthusiasm for Tillerson. By the end of my tenure, many of my closest and most trusted colleagues were registered Republicans, had worked in the Bush White House or were retired military officers. I would have strongly considered staying on in a normal Republican administration if asked.

I don’t believe my experience is unique: When you see a lot of Bush-era veterans attacking the Trump administration, it’s likely because they had a similar experience. In government—and especially in the foreign policy and national security realms — you work for your country, not a party.

Tillerson is quickly becoming one of the worst and most destructive secretaries of state in the history of our country.

What is motivating Tillerson’s demolition effort is anyone’s guess. He may have been a worldly CEO at ExxonMobil, but he had precious little experience in how American diplomacy works. Perhaps Tillerson, as a D.C. and foreign policy novice, is simply being a good soldier, following through on edicts from White House ideologues like Steve Bannon. Perhaps he thinks he is running State like a business. But the problem with running the State Department like a business is that most businesses fail — and American diplomacy is too big to fail.

What is clear, however, is that there is no pressing reason for any of these cuts. America is not a country in decline. Its economy is experiencing an unprecedented period of continuous economic growth, its technology sector is the envy of the world and the American military remains unmatched. Even now, under Trump, America’s allies and enduring values amplify its power and constrain its adversaries. America is not in decline — it is choosing to decline. And Tillerson is making that choice. He is quickly becoming one of the worst and most destructive secretaries of state in the history of our country.

Max Bergmann is senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He served in the State Department from 2011–2017

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Plumber joe

Cut the heart out of the beauracratic mindset, downsize even more, and save Americans from the bloat that is government…..if only the EU could do the same. Good job Rex, anyone who pisses off an ex appointee into writing a whinny article is doing a good job imo. Lol

Posted on 7/2/17 | 9:46 AM CEST

Jodocus5

@Plumber joe

What we see here is the raving idiocy of the clueless who follow their ideological guts (for lack of a brain). Namely the dismissal of a cadre of technicians who actually run the show.

The problem with that is that ordinary companies (where Pres. Tweety and Tyrannosaurus Rex grew up in) go bankrupt if they self-destruct, and are removed from the scene. The US can go bankrupt but cannot be dissolved in bankruptcy proceedings. It will still be there (hopefully; wire down those nuclear buttons) when Pres. Tweety is carted out.

It’s hard to imagine a more total victory for Mr. Putin and Pres. Xi than the dismantling of US diplomacy. It simply means that the US will be losing much of its “soft power” because of its inability to articulate its thoughts and its wishes. Tweets simply don’t have the same impast as well-reasoned discourse.

The US will simply not be getting its way on a number of important issues (no diplomats left and lacking the means to influence affairs by other means).

The first results are already visible in Asia. The US has ceded control and initiative to China. It has become something of an outsider. Watch China’s economic dominance flower into political and ultimately military dominance in that region. Anyone think that won’t cost the US export opportunities, business and jobs?

Good thing that the EU is not affected by this madness. Bureaucratic technicians can be really *valuable* in getting things done. The EU understands that and benefits from it on a day-to-day basis. And luckily that won’t change soon.

The example of the damage someone with a mindset like his can do is too clear. In that respect we can at least thank Pres. Tweety.

Posted on 7/2/17 | 10:20 AM CEST

Emanuele

@ Plumber joe

I completely agree with you.

Posted on 7/2/17 | 12:04 PM CEST

MLB

@Plumber joe
Who do you think makes sure that you have a Road to drive on? Gas in your car? Making sure you have electricity? Run schools? Police? Firefighters? the Military? Law and Order?
Water supply? Trash getting picked up in front of your house? Making sure you have the Pipes you need to do plumbing?
Your lack of Thinking of Reality is quite scary. I hope you do not live in the EU or else please seek some help.

These disaffected, unimpressed, negative-thinking State Department holdovers from the Obama administration should do the sensible thing and make way for team members better suited to work with both Rex Tillerson and President Trump. This article is, of course, just another assertion of what “un-named sources” are supposedly saying, and thus it does not rise at all above the many recently fake and debunked CNN and NYT so-called ‘news’ stories!

Posted on 7/2/17 | 1:14 PM CEST

Marc Aurele

Great article. It looks like Tillerson is doing a fabulous job… unlike John Kerry. Sorry for putting the two names in the same sentence.

Posted on 7/2/17 | 10:49 PM CEST

trisul

@Jodocus5
An excellent answer. Trump’s idea that he make America Great Again by turning it into Russia, a poorer, less developed country can best be seen in his destruction of US government departments and agencies.

Russia has a tenth of the US economy, but exports almost as much military equipment, and lives on carbon. This is what Trump thinks would be “great”, cutting America down to the level of Russia.

The main reason for this is probably his inability to run such a complex government.

Posted on 7/2/17 | 11:44 PM CEST

stateless american

There are a lot of functionaries who have nothing to do with diplomacy that need to go. I live abroad and applied for a passport renewal over two years ago. The local consul refused to adjudicate it at all for about 18 months. Then denied it saying I did not respond, which only applies if a person did not supply citizenship evidence. My citizenship is not in question. Reasons for denial by congress do apply. I cannot leave my country of residence, and have not been able to visit family for 2.5 years now. In addition to the renegade consul who refuses to follow policy as stated in the FAM or the regulations as stated in the CFR or even the constitution we are now going to need to pay big bucks to the lawyers in State and Justice because I’ve had to file a lawsuit. Clearly there are people who need to go. And they can go without damaging high-level diplomacy.

Posted on 7/3/17 | 9:43 AM CEST

stateless american

Important correction! “Reasons for denial by congress do apply.” should read “Reasons for denial by congress do NOT apply.”

Posted on 7/3/17 | 9:46 AM CEST

Plumber joe

You are failing to realize the unimportance of a group of outdated individuals to push policy in the age of instant face to face technological innovations. One good video conferencing nit wit can put forth the policy of the whole department or government multiple times each day. Period. It’s a huge waste of money to have so many people working for the state department.

As for going bankrupt, what the hell does it matter? We are trillions in debt, bankruptcy might actually get them to pay attention next time. Borrowing is the most asinine thing for most people because it’s a dog collar for the length of time until you repay it, and one huge mistake and you lose it all or go further in debt.

Don’t bother with Putin or xi or even Merkel, since they care about their counties first and foremost just like trump does. No one cares two rat farts if Putin does this or xi does that, you are the ones who don’t have thousands of miles of oceans protecting you, we can afford to spit in the wind, we just got tired of bailing out Europe for a century, now you can group together like a herd of cattle and enjoy being told where you can graze.

The EU is atrocious. It’s a trading bloc, that’s all it was ever designed to be, then a group of two bit fairies showed up from never land and starting coming up with crazier laws than California. You people may as well just get dog collars and show up twice a day to be walked around Brussels, but God help you if you are female and not Muslim and go there on your own, you get raped shot at or killed. Even nyc in the 80’s wasn’t as bad as parts of Europe are today.

Your whole Union is screwed, learn Farsi and convert now while you can, the slave labor you are bringing into the European Union in the name of human rights, does not want anything but to be subservient to a religious set of laws, and they will be outnumbering you soon. Good luck Omar

Posted on 7/3/17 | 10:49 AM CEST

Jacques

This all sounds like good news. The less time America spends bringing shock and awe democracy to the rest of the world, the more opportunity the rest of us will have to engage in diplomatic bridge-building without having to worry about which country Halliburton wants to invest in next.

Posted on 7/3/17 | 11:29 AM CEST

Adrian

What I draw from the article is that the SOS does not think much of the State Department he inherited. In such circumstances, he entitiled to make radical changes to suit him. Therefore it is too early to judge him.

Posted on 7/3/17 | 11:48 AM CEST

Adrian

RT clearly does not rate the department he inherited. There may be trust issues with all the leaks that have taken place against Trump. Thus he should be entitiled to change it radically. Officials that the author spoke to should not have been so indiscrete by openly criticising their boss, which will justify RT lack of confidence in them.

Posted on 7/3/17 | 11:52 AM CEST

Hope Truth

Go Tillerson! A foreign policy which brought us into so many wars, which killed so many Americans and non-Americans, is the legacy of the Bush/Obama state department. How did we end up promoting ugly groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen? Why do Americans spend billions via the IMF and others supporting a highly corrupt government in Ukraine? The author of this article cares more about his guilty colleagues, than he does about the deaths and wars they wrongly picked sides for.

Posted on 7/3/17 | 5:48 PM CEST

Jodocus5

Every problem has a solutions that is simple, obvious, and …. wrong.
Trump supporters are true geniuses at finding those.

The most asinine comment I’ve read so far is some poster telling us that diplomacy got the US into wars. What would it take to explain to a Trumpist that doing away with diplomacy means you’ve got nothing in between being ignored and starting a war? And that diplomacy actually prevents having to resort to a shootout on a weekly basis?

The more thoughtful US generals know this all to well:

” “If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately,” Mattis said, before members of Congress at a National Security Advisory Council meeting, the US Global Leadership Coalition notes.

“So I think it’s a cost-benefit ratio. The more that we put into the State Department’s diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to put into a military budget as we deal with the outcome of an apparent American withdrawal from the international scene,” Mattis continued.”

But try telling that to a Trumpist. Not useful. It will go in one ear and out the other with zero friction in-between.

Posted on 7/3/17 | 8:20 PM CEST

Bob

This is not really news. Every new administration seeks to re-form the institutions of government. In this case, the new administration was elected on a platform that promised to undo virtually the entire diplomatic edifice built by the previous administration. For that reason, it would be a surprise if Rex Tillerson did listen to the senior voices held over from the previous administration.

Posted on 7/3/17 | 9:37 PM CEST

new guy

the state department is part of the executive branch .. it is a tool of the elected president of the United States of America. If the leader of the executive branch cannot manage his own tools of authority .. the USA is doomed .. Trump needs to exercise full authority over the entire executive branch. Elections have consequences.

Posted on 7/5/17 | 8:56 AM CEST

Corni

The entire foreign policy promoted by US in the previous eight years i.e. under Obama, was absolutely ineffective to put it nicely. The most asinine accomplishment trumpeted by the previous admin and lead by the previous SoS John Kerry, was the Iran nuclear deal. And it took more than two years of back and forth ‘diplomacy’ ending with loads of cash marshalled to Tehran with impunity. So now is the time to sanitize the infested DoS even if you have to start from scratch. And please, no more lecturing about EU because this is the last thing we should take as an example, but no, could be taken as an example NOT to do if we want to have a country in the future.

Posted on 7/5/17 | 4:07 PM CEST

Sue

From afar it is most heartbreaking to see the damage being done to such a mighty world leader as America was, by a handful of fools.

Posted on 7/6/17 | 12:43 PM CEST

Vishnou

Let him “wreck” in peace!! 🙂

Posted on 7/6/17 | 5:07 PM CEST

Vishnou

@Sue: Don’t worry: Pence said he wanted the US to put its boots on Mars. Surely evangelist ones. So there is hope the US will survive for that sole purpose after destroying the whole planet through poisoning and air pollution.

Posted on 7/7/17 | 6:09 PM CEST

Former FSO

I too was at State for 6 years, except as an FSO not a political appointee. I am a regsitered Republican, a fact I would have *never* divulged during that time because being a Republican at State is a career-killer. Occasionally, someone would note where I earned my Ph.D. which marked me as a likely conservative, but in these rare cases it was ok given that they only knew what it meant because they too, were Republicans. And then we would have a conversation about how we kept our mouths shut about politics lest we ruin our careers. The experience Bergmann relates about rising above politics says a lot about how different it is for political appointees versus career staffers; and, it says a lot about how there is a huge difference between those working in HST and those overseas. It also points to how perhaps he errs a bit in terms of his perception of how things are at State politically given he was one of the “in-crowd” while he was there and no one who did not think like him had much incentive to show it off.

Since the election, I have been stunned at the number of my former collegues who are willing to say the nastiest, vilest things about anyone who did not vote for Bernie or HRC. (I will say that whenever I was in her orbit, she was very charming and had a wonderful aura that unfortunately for her, never, ever showed up on the TV cameras on the campaign trail. HRC was not a beloved SecState like Colin Powell, but neither was she disliked). The things that they say about the current president are equally unprintable. It is shocking to me that they are so free with their opinions on social media, but then these are the same people who post on social media pictures of their official passports and of their housing at post (two things Diplomatic Security asks FSOs *not* to do). This type of thing goes to why “sources say” based articles about Tillerson carry little water with me. Those sources have a political agenda that is unbecoming of diplomats, but not surprising given State is overwhelmingly a Democrat Party-leaning institution and many career employees elevate and venerate the countries and sections in which they have served over America in ways that really should be dubbed treasonous.

These diatribes against Tillerson are puzzling to me to read as I would think DC-based journalists would understand how State works. The comment sections are depressing to read as 1000s who know nothing of State accept the narrative that Tillerson is bumbling and fumbling along.

And yet, things the public does not seem to know, in no particular order, but respecting all of the articles and comments I have read about Tillerson over the past few days:

1. American tax dollars support on average 5K FSOs living overseas every year. This includes paying for their housing, their children’s schooling, their travel, shipments of household goods, shipping privileges akin to the military APO/FPO system, and on and on. Large families of at least 3 children are common (why not when you have no housing or schooling costs). Stay at-home mothers, rare here at home, are common. Yes, living overseas for years at a time can be expensive and hard, but State’s compensation system rewards the male officer, SAHM, three children families, and many FSOs join State because of that and it is costly. Yes, State has a bloated budget and supporting and encouraging large families is part of it. But this is something no one mentions. It is just assumed that cost-cutting is bad. Where is the challenge to how State spends its money?
2. All embassies and consulates are heavily staffed with local nationals who do most of the work. Officers make decisions, all of the work it takes to present something to an officer to consider, and then enact the result of the decision, is done by local nationals. Much of the diplomatic work of the United States can carry on without an FSO around, and stories by FSOs about being ineffective because a local national stonewalled them are legion. This is one reason why much of State staffing redudancies remaining empty are not the crisis it appears. So much of the work carries on regardless.
3. State has traditions. All bureaucracies do of course, but State has created protocols and ways of doing so that everyone gets to be an important diplomat, an important person, even when the duty is nothing more than a congratulatory email for a country’s national day. Perhaps Tillerson is looking at this little detail because these missives have developed a tradition of saying something partisan, or making an implicit promise … who knows? The public does not because journalists just take the “sources say” complaint, assume the worst, and do not ask “but why?” I read this and immediately was curious about the why and am left unsatisfied with the explanation that it is because Tillerson is a bumbling micromanager.
4. A corollary to #3. Why did HRC have so much time to travel, do work on her presidential campaign on the down-low, etc.? Because her 7th floor was not involved in anything day to day. She did not look at it. She let everyone carry on, with her nod at reorganization being the QDDR. https://www.state.gov/s/dmr/qddr/ What is that? It was the reorganizational effort that claimed that State was understaffed and underresourced.
5. How is the WH refusing to accept any nominations by Tillerson, Tillerson’s fault?
6. One of my favorite pictures is of SecState Kerry meeting with 3 Saudi officials. The 3 Saudis were sitting expansively in their chairs looking at Kerry and his team, with nothing in their hands. Kerry sat on a couch, looking down at papers in his hand. His team of 3 arranged around him were all looking down at papers in their hands, scribblingly furiously with looks of extreme concentration on their faces. The visit was going to result in multiple reports, cables, re-caps and discussions on the American-side; the sort of follow up that justifies overstaffing and job responsibility redundancies/protocols to justify the position. The Saudis just needed photographic proof that they matter enough to the United States, that American’s top diplomat would stop by for a visit.
7. Hiring outside consultants to review the organization and make changes is how things are done at State. This is not unusual. Guess which consultant group is responsble for how State does its hiring of FSOs? http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/weekinreview/17lewin.html
8. If it is so damaging that so many offices remain empty, what of State’s responsibilities are not being done? And a foreign national official complaining about lack of attention is not something not being done, as a foreign national official has little incentive to say anything else. I would accept the premise of the argument if I could see the damage, but as of yet, I do not.
9. And a personal anecdote to demonstrate how HST staffing is not all that is being claimed. After a DC-meeting where legal noted they could help with fact-gathering about gang members, I reached out to them about a sticky case involving Mexican cartels. The response? Essentially that they had expertise on the Russian gangs/mafia/mob but could not help regarding Mexican cartels. They were unwitting. As a political priority this might make sense, but in terms of the work of State, how is this acceptable? And what does it say about HST staffing and the political appointees that Bergmann claims are so very necessary?

Change is always uncomfortable. Tillerson is being cut off at the knees by the White House. The frothing at the mouth media makes everyone think the sky is falling. An editorial by a former D-party political appointee that attempts to be magnanimous towards the R-party is taken as evidence that the frothing media has a point. I, too, am troubled by what I hear and read. But mostly I am troubled because I have to hunt for facts amidst all of the froth.

State and the people that work hard day in and day out overseas deserve better than this. Your readers, Politico, deserve better than this.

Posted on 8/8/17 | 2:21 PM CEST

erin

Putin at work!!! It is obvious why Russia pushed Trump into the WH. He will disassemble the basis of the organized country and disassembled country is …. like nonexistent country. Many american morons applaud Putin.